Wedding Dress Finale

Sooooo, the wedding dress summer is at an end, I've made both dresses, both brides are happily married.  Their marriages were only hours apart, so I only saw Danielle's dress 'in action'.  She loved it, I'm happy to report.

It was no easy feat, creating that dress in just 2 weeks.  And just as I predicted, I was sewing up until the last minutes.  There were a few set-backs, and I was rescued more than once by Tami Atkinson and her masterful tailoring skills.  It was she who came back at 6:30 as I was sewing on the last hook and shooed me off to shower, while bride, sisters, grandchildren et all were running around curling hair and getting ready - it seriously reminded me of Kevin and his family scurrying around the house dressing and finding bags because they were about to miss their flight to France, leaving him Home Alone.

 Tami sewed the hook and ironed the dress, and Dani made it on time to her Open House.  Whew!!

 Next time I will insist the bride has to be in the same place as I when I am sewing her dress... squeezing fittings into 2 days makes it a real nail-biter.

Now, don't they just look so happy!!

Ants Marching

(If I had music linked here, you'd be listening to Dave Matthews right now.)


This morning's walk with Nichole was SO humid - it felt like Florida out there, after yesterday's torrential deluge.  And may I just say, if you were glad of the rain, you can thank me.  I deep watered the other day and that instituted the Murphy's law of watering your grass - the rule akin to the one, "If you wash your car, it will soon rain."  The rains we've had the last few days have been wonderful.

(I further discovered there is apparently a Murphy's law of  garden hoses stating something like, "If there is a split in the hose, the resulting stream will be aimed directly at the person who is turning on the faucet." True story.)

But besides sodden lawns and the seeds and leaves which pooled wherever the sudden rivers took them, we liked watching the ants again.  What caught our eye particularly was a group carrying their eggs to another location.  We are guessing they had a cave-in someplace down below and were moving the nursery.  I've seen it before, the long line of little black or brown critters carrying the starkly white eggs.  We traced them a  couple of yards to a spot under a bush.
Maybe it is simply to another part of their formicary? (I love that word.)   What makes it all so fascinating is the communication involved.  Who tells whom to move, how is that info spread??  How do they find that new home and then tell the others?  Personally, I could sit and watch them quite a while, they're just so interesting.   If the kids had been here, I probably would have come home and taken them over to observe with me.

Oh, and I tried to find an image of ants carrying their eggs, but nothing that was similar to what we saw.  BUT, I know you'll love going to look at this link, about the girl who had ants coming out of her eye!!

http://www.onlineweblibrary.com/blog/?p=313

Wedding Dress Summer

"Wow, I CAN NOT believe you can MAKE a DRESS!!"

That's what I heard from a visitor a couple of weeks ago, a young lady who apparently never learned to sew.  

I write this post between dresses - TWO wedding dresses I am sewing this summer.  Actually, the first one is done and out the door, we only have left to make a sash for it.  The bride is deciding if she wants to add color or to maybe use her lace there...  She seemed surprised I wanted her to take it away after the final fitting, but I really did, I wanted to KNOW it was actually done. Complete. Finis. Whew!!  

She is Christine Lillywhite, a friend of Chelsea's.  She is getting married the same day as our Danielle - August 18th.  That is in only THREE weeks from now.  (I think my shoulders just tensed in anxious anticipation) 

I agreed to make the dress for Christine only because she really wanted it very simple, and I had many weeks to do it.  And obviously, it had been so long since I'd sewn anything for anyone else, I'd forgotten how anxious I get when sewing things for others. 

But I've survived, the dress is done, the bride used the word PERFECT more than once!  It is what she wanted (even after totally having to redo the blousy top that looks WAY different on the pattern picture than it turned out in real life.  But I remade it to better reflect what she was wanting, and she's pleased. )

Danielle also wants me to make her dress, and that will be a lot more fun,  even with a little less time to complete.  She won't get here until next weekend, giving me 2 weeks to properly finish it.  But I think I'll just start cutting and sewing ahead of her, going by her measurements.  Her dress is quite different from the first one, but she also wants it fairly simple.  If either had demanded rows and rows of lace or miles of pearls and beading, it would have been a show-stopper.  This is going to work.

And it's time to truly start delegating all the wedding details to others so I can only be worrying about this dress those last few days.  

Heheh, like that will happen.

(and the photos were taken by my assistant, Jemma.  I handed her the camera and asked her to take a few of me in action, and there were a few decent ones. She also took about 4 dozen photos of the dog, the stairs, the dog ON the stairs.... most are blurry and shaky and totally unrecognizable.  But 6-yr-olds work for Popsicles, I really can't complain.  )

  

  

Patriotic Ants

This has been a great Fourth, well maybe here because it was overcast and a little rainy now and then.  For others where there are fires, not so much fun.

But anytime we have rain here it is cause for celebration.  It seems to have cleared out in time for tonight's fireworks.  This morning it didn't look as promising, it was quite cloudy.  It felt WONDERFUL to walk in the overcast, humid air this morning (at 6:30 it was 79 and sprinkling now and then.)

Nichole and I took a long walk around the neighborhood, talking to friends and watching the scouts set the flags out on the roundabouts at 5 intersections.  They do this every national holiday.  Well, several of them, anyway... Veteran's Day, Memorial Day, Flag Day. They are good to get up early to do this on a day they could be sleeping in.


One thing we noticed today that was different than on other days is the way the ants were acting.  Usually we   see several different colonies on our walk.  Most of the time they are in a line hurrying someplace - toward food, most likely. They must tell each other there is something on down the trail, with thousands of them going SO fast back and forth.  We once saw them making short work of a bird carcass. YUM!


   Often they are working together in a different way, cleaning house we call it.  They come out of the mouth of their formicary with a tiny pebble and drop it, about an inch or inch and a half away. Then they go right back underground. Those little mounds of brown are easy to see. We haven't figured out what triggers that, and there are often several little hills in one area, presumably all from one colony.  Perhaps the nearby sprinklers made a mess of their passageways and they need to recreate their little tubes.  It does make us wonder just how far all those tunnels are running under our feet... like do they go under the sidewalk and grass and street?  A few feet away, or several yards?


Today it was another thing altogether, which we've seen only occasionally.  The ants, in colony after colony, were scattered.  ALL OVER the sidewalk!  There was no rhyme or reason, no one was headed anywhere at all.  There was no line to follow, no pattern.  Just ants and more ants all over our path. We couldn't really step over them as we walked, we were on top of them each time before we even realized it.  


Since we saw this about 5 times during our walk, we attributed it to the weather. That was the only thing that was different.  It was cloudy and humid, sprinkling a little bit.  Why that would send them out like this, we couldn't surmise.

Nichole decided they knew it was a holiday. After all, they weren't hurrying to get food, and they weren't cleaning out the house...  they must have been celebrating.

 "They are Patriotic Ants!"

Priesthood Blessing - a Non-Mormon View

I love that my husband honors his priesthood!  I love that I can ask for and receive a blessing from him when I'm sick, or upset, or just really need comfort.  I love that God has given this power to the earth, and that his worthy followers can bless their families with it.  We have seen profound results from the laying-on of hands.

A non-Mormon observed this and reported it during WWII

During World War II, in the early part of 1944, an experience involving the priesthood took place [and] was related by a correspondent—not a member of the Church—who worked for a newspaper in Hawaii. … He and other correspondents were in the second wave behind the marines at Kwajalein Atoll. As they advanced, they noticed a young marine floating facedown in the water, obviously badly wounded. The shallow water around him was red with his blood. And then they noticed another marine moving toward his wounded comrade. The second marine was also wounded, with his left arm hanging helplessly by his side. He lifted up the head of the one who was floating in the water in order to keep him from drowning. In a panicky voice he called for help. The correspondents looked again at the boy he was supporting and called back, “Son, there is nothing anyone can do for this boy.”

“Then,” wrote the correspondent, “I saw something that I had never seen before.” This boy, badly wounded himself, made his way to the shore with the seemingly lifeless body of his fellow marine. He “put the head of his companion on his knee. … What a picture that was—these two mortally wounded boys—both … clean, wonderful-looking young men, even in their distressing situation. And the one boy bowed his head over the other and said, ‘I command you, in the name of Jesus Christ and by the power of the priesthood, to remain alive until I can get medical help.’” The correspondent concluded his article: “The three of us [the two marines and I] are here in the hospital. The doctors don’t know [how they made it alive], but I know.”  (the above story was related in Conference by president Thomas S Monson. ) 

The hands of the Aaronic priesthood blessing are on many Jewish graves, this one in Germany.  The Priesthood was on the earth from the beginning.  

 I'm grateful it has been restored to the earth in the latter days.

* The day after I posted this, the abscess behind my crown suddenly flared into action and I was in great, throbbing pain.  I took amoxicillin knowing it would be a day before that would do a thing.  It was late and I didn't want to take the pain meds, but I did ask Jim for a blessing before I went to bed.
I slept just fine and woke to no pain!  Still swollen and plenty of pressure, but only mild pain, I can survive till surgery after the weekend!  

Back Off, Avengers!

I have the privilege of taking Beth out to a variety of venues, like swim parties, Karaoke, bingo, a dance every month, and MOVIES, lots of MOVIES. All the kid movies as well as the majority of the popular ones.  I should own stock in Harkins' popcorn, we eat loads of it.  With butter ("Layer it, please!")   Yes, I know it isn't really butter, it's a magical, gacky, oily concoction, but somehow it's really tasty.  And it's free. (we get the popcorn cards, then upgrade to a size we can refill the next time.  And then we even bring some home for Beth's sister, Sally.  Win-Win!!)

And Beth and I go to one or two movies almost every week.  She LOVES her movies and it is so fun to watch they way she interacts - to her it is real (for those two hours) and she is living it.  The more emotion, the better. She especially likes contention.  Fighting, arguing, VILLAINS!!!  She always sides with the villains.  And the handsome fellow is always HER man - she (quietly) shouts at the screen, "Hands off him, lady, he's mine!" 

And she talks to the screen quite a bit, she rocks forward in her excitement as things heat up, and she calls out to the screen - but she knows she'll get in trouble talking in a movie, so she tries to keep it quiet.  And she further picks up her popcorn bag to the side of her face, as a barrier between us so I cannot hear her.  I've learned to pick seats away from other folks so she doesn't disturb them.  She keeps the volume just to a level that won't get her in trouble.  

Even when there isn't any real conflict, she creates her own.   Someone in the movie will yell, "Run, kid!" as a boy is trying to get away from the baddies, and Beth calls out, "DON'T run!"  

My favorite lately happened while watching "What to Expect When You're Expecting".

There was no conflict, no enemies, no baddies.  (she liked it anyway.)  So while a baby was being delivered and the Doc announced to the mom, "It's a girl!" ,  Beth under her breath says, "It's a BOY!"    She always has to be contrary.

She LOVES superheroes.  So we've seen Iron Man, in all his  incarnations, and Batman (Next one comes out July 20th, she tells me all the time)   Spidey is going to be here 3rd of July, I just asked her.  She has our summer planned! Next week it'll be a rocking Tom Cruise.

So of course, she talked about AVENGERS for a year.  Because we watch all the movies and see the trailers over and over and over again, for as long as they are promoting their movie.  Avengers has several superheroes, we were there opening day, I think.  And then we saw it a second time.  I paid attention to her this time (it was my THIRD time watching it,) and she was as entertaining as what was on the screen. It is her absolute involvement in it all that makes it so  great to watch.  (and she might be integrating it and deciphering it for an hour or two afterwards, her processing takes time.)  


This second showing we stayed through the credits (she usually likes to,) to see the little trailer tag at the end.  This only was a few seconds long, but showed a red-faced, menacing Alien who will be the next Villain. Oooh, a menacing, villainous VILLAIN!!

 Beth was totally there, calling out loudly, "Back off, Avengers, BACK OFF!!"

They call me Mellow Yellow

So I decided to paint my hall bathroom, it still had the original 12 yr-old paint, and the blue and red and yellow flowers Danielle and I painted in there way back when she was a pre-teen. It was time for a change. The bedroom next to it is turquoise blue (soon to be a pale seafoam green,) and I thought a really pale yellow would look nice in there.
Yellow is my least favorite color, but over the years we have painted yellow walls. It seems to be a good one to go along with other colors. I can't wear yellow clothes, but my walls look fine in it.
     Well, standing in the paint aisle in Home Depot, I discovered about a zillion yellow choices: Vanilla Milkshake, Morning Sunshine, Zinnia Gold, Lemon Drops, Banana Split, Cornsilk, Mellow Yellow, Lemon Souffle, Lemon Poundcake, Lemon Sorbet ... I was getting hungry, and realized one's decision might be made simply by virtue of whether they've had their breakfast yet or not.
      I picked out many paint chips - darker than I wanted, lighter, as yellow as I thought I might be able to handle. Do I want it lemony? Not sure. Greenish? NO! And definitely not heading over to honey or orange. My head was swimming in all the choices. I tipped the little cards, carried them under a different light, tilted them - they kept changing shades... this was not easy.
      I said hello to a little dog in a shopping cart, and his owner leaned over to be friendly. She looked at the mass of yellow in my hands and asked, "So what are you painting?"
 "A hall bathroom."
 "Oh. Well, yellow... won't that make people think of urine? Hey, Bob! She's thinking of painting her bathroom YELLOW!"
 A scruffy mate walked over, "Oh. Isn't that a little like urine?"
      Why thanks ever so much. Howsabout you folks take Bruiser there back to your double-wide and let me make my decision!
      But now I was a little unsure of this. I decided I needed a daughter's opinion. Luckily Chelsea answered her phone and was quick to reassure me. "Nah, Mom. Yellow will be fine. No one's going to think of urine when they walk into the bathroom. Well, unless they already WERE thinking of urine."
     I finally picked a not-too-pale shade of Moonlight and hurried over to the paint guy before I changed my mind again.
     A week later I started pouring paint into the tray, realizing this does look lemony. It looks positively yummy, like some lemon custard filling in a cake. I realized the paint color name choosing people have to be cautious about their naming. Lemon sorbet evokes a lovely sentiment, lemon yogurt not so much. Urine might be descriptive enough, but it will never appear on a paint chip, pretty sure. And I realized even custard might not make it to a paint color chip - there are probably others who, like me, were big Beatles fans and could quickly start humming in their head, "Yellow matter custard, dripping from a ..." Well, you can read the rest here I am the Walrus

My bathroom is all Moonlit now and ready for a new rug and some little hand towels .  Soon I may tackle the bedroom next to it, the one that will be pale green.  Today I got those paint chips.  How do these sound?  Envious Pastel, Misty Lawn, Misty Hillside, Misty Afternoon... those don't sound like Arizona colors, do they? There are Margarita and Olive Martini (someone was thirsty THAT day!)   Toadstool, Trailing vine, and my two favorites - Lazy Caterpillar and Jade Bracelet.  

This is gonna be tough to decide!  Maybe I should head back to Home Depot and see if Bruiser and the folks are there,  I'm sure they have an opinion about painting a room green.